There is nothing more annoying or frustrating than a trigger point! Okay, there may be more annoying things we experience. But the fact of the matter is, we are all prone to developing trigger points at some point in our lives. Whether it be from doing nothing, or from doing too much, we are all susceptible to the annoyance that these spots on our muscles can develop. At Salt and Spine Chiropractic, our physicians are specialists in finding these spots. Even if you didn’t know you had them, they will likely find them and exploit them! You may hear them discuss where they are on you and how they can reduce them. Maybe you have heard of them in the past, or maybe you have not heard anything about them. So what is a trigger point, how do we address them, and what do they mean for wellness?
Trigger points are natural muscular responses to your physical environment or lifestyle. Their origin is not as simple as it may seem, since they can be caused by a wide array of factors. These include but are not limited to emotional or physical stress, overuse, underuse, bad postural habits, new activity, and simply living. Everyone has a different physical environment, and can have a different response expressed from their muscle engagement. From the list above, it may seem that they are inevitable…while this may be true to some extent, they can be reduced, treated, and addressed to be controlled in the long term.
Part of our mission and vision at Salt and Spine Chiropractic is to address the root cause of your physical ailments. Trigger points are great indicators to finding the cause of the bigger picture. Knowing where your trigger points may be, we can target questioning to see what may be causing their presence. With proper treatment, the trigger points could potentially reduce the frequency and duration of pain episodes. Some trigger points can present with no symptoms. It is likely that the muscle has experienced the trigger point(s) chronically, and your body has become habituated to its condition. In these cases, it may take a great deal of time to reduce the trigger point frequency, but it is important to start treatment to prevent other issues further in time!
Some treatments we provide to address trigger points include dry needling, myofascial tissue release, manual muscle stripping, and IASTM (muscle scraping). We may incorporate additional recommendations such as maintaining proper hydration practice, at-home versions of exercise that may help, massage therapy recommendations, and recommendations on environmental changes to help assist with the work we are performing with your treatment plan! Whatever your case may be, our doctors can assist you in your treatment to reduce these buggers! Ask one of our providers how they can help you with long-term management of your trigger points today!